Instructional Technology and More…

My second post…

Man! What a streak! It’s been little less than a year since my first post. Huffington Post watch out!

I digress… Well anyway, in this post, I plan to share what I’ve been working on for the past few months or so… And since I’ve been working on a variety of things, it would be best to focus in on one thing. Today, that one thing will be my plans to collaborate with our school’s library experts on the development of a MakerSpace in my school’s library. Think of this as part of my MakerSpace diary.

Before delving into what this space should be and look like, one must ask, “Why?”. “Why have this space?”, “Why is this important?” and perhaps most important of these, “Who cares?”. While unable to fully answer these questions, I thought it would be great to start with building my understanding of the latest in the educational movement. I referenced the following resources for this task: Invent to Learn Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager.

As a former secondary science teacher, I often relied upon materials and the environment to explain and teach scientific concepts. In Invent to Learn, Martinez and Stager say, “Children’s seminal learning experiences come through direct experience with materials.” I have witnessed this first hand with children who are schooled under the Montessori philosophy. Students who learn under this philosophy are encouraged to make sense of the natural world and beyond through their respect and interactions with the physical environment. As children manipulate and interact with materials, they are able to contextualize the new knowledge and use it to synthesize and create new meaning.

While eager to begin the planning for this new space where students can create meaning from materials and the environment, I want to continue exploring various approaches in an effort to develop a sound rationale for having this space.